Friday, October 8, 2010

From Chiba To Christchurch

Short note: Here comes the entry from my visit to New Zealand during the last summer break. Before I start blogging about the wonderful places around the South Island, I shall begin with the super long journey from Chiba to Christchurch. Almost thirty hours, I think! Damn crazy. Anyway, for a change, I will not write much like I always do. I will only put up captions for each pictures because I know you all will not gonna read the long texts anyway right? Actually, it's just an excuse as I am too lazy to write too much for this entry haha!

16 August, 2010 | 13:30 A place I've passed through for 59897432 times; i.e. every time I leave Japan. On each of those occasions, I would be filled with excitement because it's either I would be heading home, or leaving for a vacation. This time, the destination was New Zealand.

16 August, 2010 | 13:53After I checked-in my luggage, I just wandered around the airport. I was approached by a lady from the American Express booth and she handed me a piece of paper on a lucky draw. I tore open the paper and it says there that I kena lottery haha! At the redemption counter, I was given a mechanical pencil. What a prize for an "original goods" lol! But seriously, I think nine out of ten people would strike it-lor; almost everyone who was given that paper seemed to return to the counter to redeem their prizes haha!

16 August, 2010 | 14:38 That's Chiba-kun, the mascot for the National Sports Festival of Japan which was held in Chiba and just ended recently. Last year, it was held in Niigata. It seems that the venue follows wherever I go lol! Anyway, if you look at the map of Chiba prefecture (green area), it resembles the shape of Chiba-kun.

16 August, 2010 | 14:59 Duty free shops inside the airport. Notice the word "折" on the yellow boards. Basically, the character means "to bend" or "break off/snap". So, most people would misinterpret it and think that the goods there are sold at 95% discounted rate. The truth is, they were selling the goods at 95% from the original price.

16 August, 2010 | 15:21 The airport workers busy loading several final pieces of luggages into the aircraft. My flight from Narita to Hong Kong, and the subsequent flight from Hong Kong to Auckland, were with Cathay Pacific Airlines.

16 August, 2010 | 15:25 It has become a habit for me to take a photo of my boarding pass with my Malaysian passport before I board the plane every time.

16 August, 2010 | 15:29 This is the boarding pass for the connecting flight from Hong Kong to Auckland, and it was a 12-hour long flight!

16 August, 2010 | 15:45 I know I sound like a jakun, but it's my first time seeing such comfortable seats! Too bad that was for the business class. Anyway, I still believe these seats won't fit my giraffe legs haha!

16 August, 2010 | 17:33 Early dinner. I told the flight attendant, "Can I have chicken, please?" However, he misheard my "please" as "fish"; so in the end, I was given this fish fillet cooked in soy sauce, instead of chicken, which I prefer more =.=

16 August, 2010 | 20:24 It was almost impossible to take a perfect shot of the night view of Hong Kong from inside a plane that goes more than 500 km per hour. This is the best shot I think. Seeing the real thing from the window was totally different. Hong Kong is gonna be one of my travel destinations in the near future.

16 August, 2010 | 20:19 I touched down at Hong Kong International Airport and prepared for my next flight. There was still another hour to go before I board the plane and my stomach was already making noise. Without any Hong Kong dollars in my wallet, I just settled for this wafers I got from the TEIC Festival. At the same time, I went online using the free Wifi-connection they have in the airport, which coincidentally, the only thing I like about this airport haha!

16 August, 2010 | 20:26Another thirty minutes to go before my boarding time. Feeling bored, I continued to Facebook in front of the boarding gate haha!

16 August, 2010 | 21:01Just a few minutes before stepping onto the plane and leave for Auckland. Damn excited and at the same time, anxious because I wondered if my English would be good enough for the Kiwi people to understand me lol!

16 August, 2010 | 21:29 Took a few newspapers as reading materials in the plane. It has been some time since I read an English newspaper. And what a headline to welcome me to New Zealand!

16 August, 2010 | 21:45I didn't really bother to read the front pages because the first section I flipped to was the sports section. However, it was full of rugby, and I thought maybe there might be other sports in the next few pages.

16 August, 2010 | 21:45But no, it was still rugby...

16 August, 2010 | 21:45And more rugby! I swear there were like ten full pages, all reporting about rugby! Hello, do you Kiwi people play nothing else but rugby in New Zealand? So boring-lar!

16 August, 2010 | 21:50Hahahaha!!! The headline should explain everything. "Welcome to New Zealand!", I quietly said to myself lol!

17 August, 2010 | 11:44Can anyone spot one of the most famous landmarks in Auckland, the Sky Tower in this photo? It's in the bottom left of the photo, in between the clouds.

17 August, 2010 | 11:49Notice the shadow of the plane on the green field. I think this is my first time seeing this because I usually take night flights. By the way, those white spots are, yes you have guessed it correctly; they are sheep haha! I actually tried to count them, but gave up in the end because there were just too many white spots lol!

17 August, 2010 | 12:04Some Maori wooden decorations to welcome visitors to New Zealand upon arrival at Auckland International Airport.

17 August, 2010 | 12:41The international and domestic terminal is located next to each other, and it takes roughly fifteen minutes to walk in between the two terminals. For the convenience of visitors, we can either take the free shuttle bus, or walk along the blue and white lines to get between the two terminals.

17 August, 2010 | 12:44This was still at the international terminal. I asked some random guy to take this photo for me. Too bad his photography sense was close to zero as he missed out that nice welcoming sign almost completely lol!

17 August, 2010 | 12:48Auckland International Airport is just a small airport compared to KLIA or Hong Kong International Airport; it's just about the size of Penang International Airport.

17 August, 2010 | 12:57After walking for approximately ten minutes, I arrived at the domestic terminal. I took Air New Zealand to travel from Auckland to Christchurch.

17 August, 2010 | 13:04The departure gate at the domestic terminal in Auckland International Airport was just a small one.

17 August, 2010 | 13:40The arrival gate was even smaller! I think this is the smallest arrival gate I have seen in my life haha!

17 August, 2010 | 15:13Some light snacks and water served during the short flight.

This is an interesting safety video from Air New Zealand that was shown to us just before the take-off. At least they made an effort to produce some different and interesting to attract the attention of the passengers. Make sure you watch until the end! I bet you gonna love it a lot haha!

17 August, 2010 | 15:44Beautiful terrain while the mountains in the far background were still covered with snow caps.

17 August, 2010 | 16:12Arrived in Christchurch International Airport! I was kinda surprised to spot Japanese and Korean in their signboards at the airport. Apparently, there is quite a huge Asian community in Christchurch.

17 August, 2010 | 16:13I have finally arrived at Christchurch, the starting point of the trip that we had started to plan since the beginning of the year.

17 August, 2010 | 16:49It was less than an hour since I touched down at Christchurch and the first destination we went was the town - to get a hair cut for myself at a Korean saloon haha!

17 August, 2010 | 18:02Mich brought me to the legendary Pak & Save at Riccarton Mall and we did some final groceries as we were leaving for our road trip the next morning.

17 August, 2010 | 18:18Both of us were contemplating what to have for dinner. In the end, we had pork riblet sandwiches at Subway. That was our first meal together after nearly 20 months (yes, 20 months and not 20 days or 20 weeks), being apart from each other!

17 August, 2010 | 19:01Mich's batchmate, Gao Jing wanted to meet me and we were suppose to meet him for a desert session at Strawberry Fare at Peterborough Street after dinner. In the end, he asked the whole bunch of girls to join us as well lol!

17 August, 2010 | 20:24Put a few medical students at one same table and it is guaranteed that you will gonna hear super crazy stories non-stop, filled with laughter and lame jokes lol! Although we looked so well-behaved in this photo, I think we were the most insane people in that restaurant; the rest of the ang moh customers just ignored our existence there haha!

17 August, 2010 | 21:30That's Mich's car haha!

It was too risky to use that car for our road-trip. We wouldn't wanna have a Mr. Bean experience halfway through the trip, so we rented a car for our eleven-day trip around the South Island. That will most probably come in the next entry.

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